by Adolfo Salgueiro | Dec 7, 2021 | Article, Coaching, Reflection
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
All of us runners, regardless how dedicated we are to our craft, at times become experts in creating the perfect excuse to justify not running on a specific day. There are some valid excuses, of course. No one expects you to run during an electric storm or when the temperature is 120 or -50 degrees?
What it is not and will never be a valid excuse is not having a functioning GPS watch. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have enough charge, if you forgot it at home, if the wrist band broke or fill in the blank. There are plenty of options to get around this minor setback and get your training in.
If you your battery doesn’t have enough charge for your run, it is your fault. Assume the msitake and go run.
The following is a list of ways to overcome obstacles when it comes to GPS watch issues, so you can go train, anyway:
1 – The watch doesn’t have enough charge for my run: That is your fault. Own your mistake. Run on a known course and when you get home, do the simple math necessary to project what your watch was able to record to what you know is the distance you ran. Option B is to run with a buddy and get screen shots of the activity.
2 – I forgot or misplaced my watch: This is your fault. Own your mistake. Your run doesn’t need to be recorded for posterity to benefit your health or make you a better runner. What really counts is that you do run. One day without posting it in Instagram or Strava shouldn’t hurt your ego that much.
3 – My watch is not acquiring the satellites: It happens. Sometimes you have the time to wait a bit longer or restart your watch. Sometimes your group is leaving, or the race is starting. Get moving without the satellites and when they hit, start your watch. Once at home, do the simple math necessary to project what your watch was able to record and have an approximate run. It is better than not running.
4 – How am I supposed to know my pace without GPS? As many benefits as a GPS watch has, the main drawback is that runners have forgotten to run by feel. Take this as an opportunity to have fun, run by perceived effort for a change, without a gadget dictating your pace and effort. Feel the fun of an easy pace, or the thrill of comfortably pushing if that is your scheduled workout. Have fun with Fartlek or just, for a change, enjoy the view and remember you run because it is fun.
GPS watches are wonderful additions to any runners arsenal, but they have made us forget the freedom of running by feel.
5 – I can’t do my interval training without a functioning watch: Sure, interval training without a watch is hard. But if you don’t have it with you, most likely it is your fault, and you need to own your mistake and find a solution. There is an alternative, though. Boring but available. It is a treadmill. If you don’t have a treadmill, do your intervals based on available landmarks. To the third tree, to the next traffic light or to whatever is accessible and fits your plan for the day.
6 – My dog ate the watch: Check issues 1 through 5 above, overcome your objections, lace up and start running
One more thing. Most of us have additional apps in our phones that can assume on the work for a day: Strava, MapMyRun, RunKeeper, etc. There are many more and most of them have a free version. If you don’t run with a phone and can’t live with the most updated data, run with the phone that day and voila!!! Issue resolved.
As you can see, all excuses regarding your GPS watch can be easily overcome. So, remember that nobody came back from a run hoping they would have stayed at home doing nothing. Each run is transformational. Don’t miss on it because of an inconsequential obstacle.
by Adolfo Salgueiro | Oct 26, 2021 | Book Review, Coaching
By Garth Gilmour
Reviewed by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
While names like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Eliud Kipchoge, Grete Waitz, Haile Gebrselassie or Fred Lebow are known by many as some of the most influential people in the history of contemporary running, Arthur Lydiard’s is less known by the masses. Yet, most of our training plans, including some for the aforementioned runners, are based on Lydiard’s periodization principles. Born in New Zealand in 1917 (passed away in 2004), he is well known among coaching circles and by those curious enough to figure out where the basics of their training plans are coming from.
A well written book worth the time and money for those who care about the history of running.
Arthur was a local running elite who started keeping track of his training and figuring out what worked better for him. He focused on what made him better and discarded that what did not. He was no physiologist, medical doctor, or scientist. He was a shoemaker with a side gig as a milk deliveryman who just loved to run and get better at it.
His main discovery is that gains needed to be obtained slowly over time for the body to adapt and them to stick. That when the body adapts to the stimuli this gains remain and from there you can build on them. He realized that not everybody needs to run 50×400 like Emil Zatopek to become a better runner. The key for any distance from 800 to the marathon is endurance and you could obtain such endurance by developing your cardiovascular system. You do so by taking your time and running a lot of miles while recovering so you can do it, again.
As his New Zealand track and field teams had successful Olympic Games in 1960 and 1964, and Peter Snell, Murray Halberg and Barry Magee became household names in the world stage, coaches from around the world started approaching Arthur. Suddenly, Lydiard was “discovered” and became a coaching guru traveling the world.
Lydiard epitomized the Luke 4:24 biblical verse: “no prophet is accepted in his hometown”. Despite his multiple successes taking many compatriots into the top of the world stage, he kept fighting with the local sporting authorities who refused to accept his methods and ended up spreading his knowledge around the globe while New Zealanders were left behind.
Olympic Committees from Mexico, Finland, and Venezuela trusted him with the training of his athletes, some with better results than others. Japanese coaches and runners visited New Zealand to train with him. During the boom of Japanese world-class marathoners of the early to mid-eighties, Toshihiko Seko and the So twins, Shigeru, and Takeshi, were in part, his success.
Thet op runners of the Japanese world-class runners boom from the eighties were product of Lydiard’s principles: Toshihiko Seko, Takeshi and Shigeru Soh.
Lydiard’s periodization principles were so effective and revolutionary, that swimmers and horse trainers adopted them with the necessary adjustments and saw results. It has been used for decades by some of the most successful performers in those disciplines.
The March/April 1992 issue of Peak Running Performance magazine said: Lydiard\’s program epitomizes one general, but very critical concept related to exercise and sports physiology. This broad principle is gradual adaptation. While most athletes would call this \”plain old common sense\”, experience tells us that common sense is not so common–especially among runners who have a strong desire to improve their running.
Author Garth Gilmour condensed Arthur’s work in the following paragraph:
“First tested and found successful in the 1950s, the Lydiard system has undergone some subtle refinements through the years. But it remains the same elemental theory that first placed a small handful of ordinary runners, from Lydiard\’s immediate neighborhood in an Auckland, New Zealand, suburb, at the forefront of world middle and distance running for more than a decade and then, as Lydiard advanced from being a coach of runners to an international coach of coaches, spread around the running tracks and training centers of the entire world.”
This is a biography on the subject, not a scientific treaty of his findings or the application of his training theories. Sure, Lydiard may not be the sexiest of subjects for everyday runners, but he was an innovator with a legacy worth knowing about. Arthur Lydiard: Master Coach is well written book, pleasant to read. Well worth your time and money if you care for the creator of the core in which most of our training plans are based on.
by Adolfo Salgueiro | Oct 19, 2021 | Article, Coaching, Guest Perspective, Reflection
By Coach Marci Braithwaite*
This is Marci’s second contribution to the Foultips.run blog. She wrote “The Journey of the Fat Runner” back on March 30th, which is by far, the most read post in the history of this blog.
\”It\’s not a workout if it\’s not at least 3 miles.\”
\”I have to hit the gym for an hour, at least.\”
\”I run every single day.\”
\”If I don\’t work out for 30 minutes, it doesn\’t count.\”
I\’m guilty of thinking and doing all these things in the past. How about you?
10,000 steps a day is an arbitrary number set by a marketing ocmpany (Photo: Blue Bird, Pexels.com)
Did you know that 10,000 steps is an arbitrary number picked by a marketing company, not by science? 4,500 steps per day is the number found to make a difference in overall health, and the benefit doesn\’t increase much, the higher your step count.
American lives are busy. Our culture doesn\’t value rest, so we are constantly driven to be productive. We keep our kids in every activity imaginable, we work full time, we are expected to have clean houses and manicured yards, cook \”healthy\” meals, and, oh! don\’t forget self-care! Not to mention, our bodies are held to a physical ideal that most people will never match, no matter how much time we spend in a gym. But we must look like we\’re trying, so we add in working out regularly to the list of other productive things we must do each day.
No wonder we\’re all exhausted.
As a running coach, there are two questions I get more than any others. One is, \”How do I get rid of shin splints?\” (not covered in this post). The other is, \”How do I stay motivated?\”
And it\’s no wonder that people feel the need to ask that question, because our lives are so full and so busy that fitting one more hour-long workout into our days can sometimes seem like a herculean task. We forget all the other things we\’ve been motivated to do all day and feel worthless and exhausted at the end of the day because that workout just didn\’t fit into all of it.
Have you ever considered doing… less?
Fitness isn\’t a look, it\’s a lifestyle. It\’s movement, which our bodies are designed to do naturally. And if you\’re one of those people who never has a problem with motivation and gets to the gym or hits the road every day, like clockwork, and never feels a lag in your desire to do so, great! But I\’d be willing to bet that something else in that list of societal expectations will suffer sooner or later. Because our bodies need rest, and our societal expectations are waaay too high.
There are a few things I would suggest to help change that.
If you find yourself constantly saying: \”The workout doesn\’t count if it isn\’t ___.” But then you also find yourself skipping workouts because you can\’t fit another ___ timeslot into your day, you might consider changing your outlook on fitness. Our bodies are designed to move, but that movement doesn\’t have to be in prescribed timeslots or for continuous periods. Fitness should be a lifestyle, which means movement every day WITHIN our days, as a part of our days, naturally.
You can always fit in movement into your office hours if you plan it properly (Photo: Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels.com)
Small bites work. Doing a mobility exercise for two minutes after sitting at your desk for an hour has measurable benefits. Keep a list of easy exercises beside your computer and take 2-5 minute breaks throughout your workday, and you\’ll have completed a 30 minute workout by the time you go home. You will feel better in your mind and body, plus you\’ll have freed up a 30-minute period to cuddle and read a story with your kiddo.
Other things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or parking further back in the lot help, as well. Setting a reminder on your phone or watch is helpful. Taking a walk or run on your lunchbreak can be beneficial, but please, don\’t skip the meal if your body is hungry (looking into intuitive eating would be a good thing, too).
All these things help to take motivation out of the equation, because the movement becomes a habit, not a requirement. Even running can be done like this (unless you\’re training for longer distances, then please follow your coach\’s plan). A 5-minute run is better than no run. And you may find that you feel just as good after a quick loop around the block in the middle of the day as you would after an hour-long run after a busy day.
What I\’m saying is, be gentle with yourself. Take small bites. Of life, of fitness, of society\’s expectations. Start small. You may find that it leads to larger things, but if it doesn\’t, that\’s perfectly okay, too. We all have our responsibilities – do what you can to fit fitness into your life in a comfortable way. It should never hurt, and you should always feel good about it at the end of the day.
*Maci is a RRCA Certified running coach, who runs “The Fat Athlete” website. If you want more information on her groups, you can request it by emailing coach.thefatathlete@gmail.com; or you can follow her in Instagram @The_Fat_Athlete.
by Adolfo Salgueiro | Aug 24, 2021 | Article, Coaching, List, Science
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
Tapering time approaches for those about to run the Abbott World Marathon Majors this year. Training time approaches for those eyeing their marathon towards the end of 2021 or start of 2022. So, seems like a good time to review some basic mistakes that runners, from beginners to experts, should avoid. This way they can reap the most benefits out of their efforts.
Training for a marathon is a process that involves multiple moving parts that need to work in sync. It needs to reach a point where the body can be stressed enough to compensate its deficiencies and adjust to the workload-thus improving- but not to a point where it becomes too much, and it can’t recover to do it again. This means overtraining and, most likely, an injury if intend to tough it out and train through it.
No need to overstress yourself if you avoid these basic mistakes in your training (Photo by Pexels.com)
The following are nine of the most common mistakes runners incur into during a marathon training cycle:
1 Running the long runs too fast: There is a time to go fast and there is a time to go slow. The long run has that name because it is designed for you to go long. It is not called the “fast run” for a reason. They are intended to build up your aerobic system, which, for a marathon, it is used 99% of the time, even if you are the world-record holder.
2 Focusing too much on the long run: The long run is an important part of your training, sure, but it is just one element, not the bulk of it. The success in your race will depend on the accumulated effect of all the elements in your training, not just one.
3 Doing the same workouts all the time: Because about 80% of the training needs to be done at a slower speed, there is a small number of hard sessions available, usually no more than two per week, so distance, speed, intensity, and other parameters, need to be worked so the body can benefit and adapt.
4 Poor fueling and hydration plans: if you don’t test strategies during training, you won’t know what works for you. The time to find that out is during training, long runs, especially. The time to realize a certain gel upsets your stomach, is not during the race. Same applies to hydration. What to drink and when needs to be part of race plan, shouldn’t be improvised on race day.
5 Skipping rest days: Not running on a specific day is part of your training. These days should be written into your schedule and followed to the tee. No amount of ice baths, compression socks or protein shakes will do you any good if you don’t give your body a break to recover so it can run again.
Rest is as part of your training as your work. Don’t skip it!
6 Not scheduling cutback weeks: During training you build up endurance, aerobic capacity, Vo2Max, and multiple additional parameters. But you can’t build up forever. Your body has a limit and needs time to actively rest so it can adapt to the benefits provided by your workouts. Programming a week to cut back on your training provides your body with time to adjust and recover, is key.
7 Cutting sleep: Remember you don’t improve when you work out, you improve while you sleep. The long run the tempo, the weightlifting, or the speed session damage your body. It is when you sleep that your body gets repaired. If you skip on sleep, you won’t realize all the benefits of the training, but you will keep the muscle damage.
8 Screwing up the tapering: Physiological adaptations after exercise, take between two and three weeks to adapt. So, there is no benefit on one last long run in the last couple of weeks. You need to actively rest and recover your body so it will be in its best shape for race day. During tapering there is nothing to gain, yet a lot to lose.
9 Following someone else’s training plan: There is nothing wrong with talking to your buddies about what they are doing, but they may not have the same goals as you and you do not have the same physiology as them. Set up YOUR PLAN, adjust as needed, and stick to it. Trust your coach. Trust your plan. Trust yourself.
Of course, there are more than nine mistakes you can incur during a marathon training cycle. These are just some of the most common and they mostly apply to any distance. As you finish your training for your Abbott Marathon Major or get ready for your upcoming goal race, make sure you are on the lookout for the aforementioned mistakes, so you won’t screw up your hard work.
by Adolfo Salgueiro | Jul 20, 2021 | Article, Coaching
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
The thrill of setting up my 10K PR, back in 2018
As any racing season moves by, you talk to many runners about what they have accomplished and what they want to accomplish. It is not just the natural flow of things among the people that do what we do, but it is also part of the fun. Most of us love to test ourselves on races because, as Dr. George Sheehan brilliantly stated: “Racing is the lovemaking for the runner. It is hard to pass up”.
PR stands for Personal Record. It can also be stated as PB (Personal Best). There are many variations of it. As we age, some runners reset their PRs every 5 or 10 years. Others live of the former glory when the ran a sub-3 marathon 30 years ago even if they can’t make it to a sub-4, now. And that is OK, too. The “P” stands for “personal”, so it is what works for you and what makes you happy. They key is to not lose sight of the reason we like to practice our sport. Nobody started their running journey so they can run a sub-20 5K or a sub-2 half marathon. All that came in later, and there is a reason for that.
As I mentioned before, while interacting with fellow runners last season, one told me she wasn’t feeling that good for an upcoming 10K race so she would have to settle for not going for a PR. This after a few good races in a row where she did set 10K and half-marathon PRs. I reminded her that the body needs to recover in order to maintain itself strong and injury-free. I also asked her to remember the main reason why she started her running journey and finally suggested to go out there and just have some fun. I must have hit something there because she thanked me and said she felt better.
Brilliant quote by Dr. George Sheehan
Another runner, this one a closer friend, had registered for a half-marathon a year ago and between this time and the race, a lot had happened, including the grueling training for two full marathon PRs, the last one less than a month prior to the race. I insisted that he should just go an enjoy the race, as it had a beautiful course, but he said: “I know you are right, but when the adrenaline hits me at the starting line it is difficult to contain yourself”. In order to shock him I replied: “Yes, I understand, but do you want your friends go through that rush while you just cheer for them, injured from the sidelines because you couldn’t contain yourself?”. At the end, my friend did set a PR, finished strong and felt great, but I firmly believe the advice still applies.
My point with these two stories is that it is imperative to allow our brains to override the adrenaline and the satisfaction of being adulated for our athletic prowess in Facebook and Instagram after a PR. We started to run to get healthier, to lose weight, or fill-in-the-blank-here; and we kept going because we enjoy the freedom of being outside, keeping ourselves in motion, the social aspect of it or fill-in-the-blank-here. So, if you want to keep doing that, be smart and understand that a PR is just a by-product of your running, not your reason.
I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter. Please leave me a comment, below.
by Adolfo Salgueiro | Jun 29, 2021 | Coaching, Personal, Reflection
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
As a coach, you put the same emphasis and hard work on every athlete that passes through your programs. You make sure to provide every single one of them with all the tools at your disposal to get the best out of their individual capabilities during their quest to achieve their goals. Yet, every so often, a special runner shows up at your door, just by chance, and blows your mind. For me, this runner is Yolmer Garcia, 45. A Venezuelan native currently residing in Pompano Beach, Florida.
A committed athlete with a personalized training program. Results speak for themselves.
I met Yolmer just by chance. We both ran at the Pompano Beach Airpark trail and from crossing paths on a regular basis, just started giving each other the “runner’s hi”. Then, when we coincided at the parking lot, we exchanged pleasantries and talked running. Two and a half years later, not only we have become good friends, but he has also exceeded all my expectations. As the title of this post reveals, he has improved leaps and bounds, and he is just getting started.
When I met him, sometime in late 2018, he was just a guy who loved running. With a ton of natural talent but no plan beyond running whatever he felt his body allowed him on any particular day. He had a few half marathons around 1:42. Not only he wanted to run a marathon, but he had already registered for Miami 2019 and was going to do it, rain-or-shine.
His first marathon was quite an adventure, given we only had 10 weeks prior to race day. We focused exclusively on distance. No time for speed. He had to go with whatever he had already built. He completed the race in a competent 4:16:31. Not bad at all, but not close to his potential as a runner. Plenty of space for improvement.
As he finished the “Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon” in North Bend, WA., on June 13, 2021, he has improved his half marathon time to 1:31:15 and lowered his marathon time 62:15, since his maiden journey into the 26.2 monster.
Yolmer was lucky enough to get into the New York City Marathon for November 2019. We set up a 20-week training program with all the necessary elements. A PR was a given, it was a matter of by how much. Unfortunately, he had severe leg cramping as he crossed from Bronx to Manhattan and his finishing time suffered considerably. Still, he finishes in 3:54:36, a 21:55-minute PR. An amazing performance regardless, and gutsy given the circumstances.
Hal Marathon PR has come down from 1:42 to 1:31
The redeeming race was Miami 2020. A plan was set to build on endurance so he could set a comfortable PR. We wanted to focus on having a more enjoyable experience through which he could build the confidence that he is able to finish strong and without cramping. Despite a bumpy last month, when life and work got in the way of training, Yolmer was able to set a 10:30 PR, finishing in 3:43:36 without cramping. Awesome, but still not within his potential.
As races resumed after the Covid pandemic, we worked on speed to tune him up for the best half marathon time we could get. He ran 1:32 in Space Coast, 1:33 in the Miami virtual and his current PR of 1:31 in A1A Ft. Lauderdale. Then it was time for the Tunnel Marathon in Washington State.
Training was not without its challenges. South Florida is flat, at sea level and with little trails to recreate race conditions. Yet, we did the best we could with what we had available. Because Yolmer is registered for Berlin in September, our main focus was on making sure he had the distance so he could finish strong and then set up a solid speed program to fine tune a BQ. Training was solid and a PR was expected. As a coach I would have been happy with a 3:30. We must have done something right, because he PR’d and BQ’d with 3:14:01, a 29:35 improvement from his previous. Now, this is within his running potential!
From Miami 2019 to Tunnel 2021, Yolmer has improved his marathon PR by over 62 minutes (2:25 per mile), with PRs in each one of his races. And he hasn’t run his fastest marathon yet. Now that he has BQ’d, the next step in his progression is a sub-3 marathon, which I have no doubt he has the conditions to achieve. It is just around the corner. Maybe even closer that he or I think. In Berlin 2021? We will give it our best shot.
